


All Done

by SherlockFan5000



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 17:18:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4674968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockFan5000/pseuds/SherlockFan5000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah and her daughter are on the way home from the park, when tragedy strikes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Done

It had been a long day at the park. Her daughter was sitting on her knee on the bus, licking a lollipop. Sarah leaned forward and sniffed the top of Lavender Rose’s head. It smelled of sunshine and strawberry shampoo.  
“Mummy!”  
“What, hon?”  
“What’re you doin’?”  
“Smelling your hair.”  
“Why?”  
“Cause it smells so good.”  
“Can I smell yours?”  
Sarah learned down farther. “What does it smell like?”  
“Good,” she said and offered Sarah her lollipop.  
Sarah took a tentative lick and smiled. She was glad that she’d put her daughter’s hair in a ponytail. She had no wish to try to wash hardened lollipop from the long, curly tresses.  
“What do you think we should have for dinner?”  
“Pizza!”  
“With?”  
“Hamburger and Cheese!”  
“Alright.” She looked into those green eyes, his eyes. He was working late so she didn’t have to worry about getting a big dinner. Honestly, she was much too tired to cook anything anyway.  
She looked up and noticed a man sitting two seats up. He was staring at them. She thought he looked familiar but couldn’t place him.  
She looked ahead. Corner of Delano and Brennan. Two more stops.  
The man hit the bell and stood up as the bus slowed down. He walked past just as the doors opened. Sarah looked out the window briefly and never saw him lunge at her. All she knew was that suddenly Lavender Rose was gone out of her arms. She looked up in shock as he ran down the stairs and out the doors.  
Sarah screamed, “Help!! Someone help!! He’s taken my daughter!!” She got to her feet and stumbled to the doors just as they started to close. “Stop!! Let me out!!!”  
She pushed through the doors and out into the street. He was just going around the corner. The bus continued on.  
“Stop him!! He’s got my daughter!!” She started after them.  
“Mummy!!!” Lavender Rose was screaming. She could see the fear in her eyes.  
“I’m coming, baby!”  
She was running as fast as she could, but he seemed so far ahead of her.  
No one seemed to be paying attention to her. No one was helping her. No one was running after him. It was like they didn’t hear her or didn’t care. The streets had seemed to be full of people when she got off the bus but now seemed strangely deserted.  
She felt like her lungs and her head were going to explode.  
“Mummy!!”  
As they got closer to the river, the early evening fog seemed to be thickening.  
She couldn’t see them anymore.  
“Lavender Rose, where are you?”  
She ran towards the river as quickly as she could but couldn’t even hear footfalls anymore. Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t hear anything. Each breath was burning her throat. Each step seemed to jar her entire body, and her legs felt as if they were made of concrete. Tears were burning their way down her face. Blackness seemed to be pulling in at the sides of her vision.  
She came to the water’s edge before she realized it and nearly fell in. She stopped and tried to listen, drawing deep, ragged breaths into her ravaged lungs. Off to the left, she was sure she heard something. She turned that way and saw the man slowly walking, not fifty feet away.  
“Mummy!!!” Lavender Rose screamed, holding out her arms to Sarah. There was a lot of fear on her face but also relief that she’d been found.  
Sarah started running again. Her right ankle screamed with pain, but she ignored it. She was nearly to them when he turned quickly towards the river and threw Lavender Rose straight out into the water.  
Sarah stopped, stunned. He looked at her and smiled. “All done,” is all he said as he turned away.  
Sarah screamed as Lavender Rose disappeared beneath the water . . . and woke. 

Late afternoon sunlight was streaming through the window. She could feel her heart pounding, her breath ragged. An antiseptic smell assaulted her nostrils. She was lying in a bed. She nearly screamed out for help, as the memories flooded into her mind. “I’m in the hospital,” she thought. “How . . . ?”  
And then she remembered. For a dream, it had been so real. She had felt her daughter in her arms, had smelled her hair, had seen that glorious, happy smile . . . How could it not have been real?  
But instead . . . now; now there would be no little girl. There would never be any child. Because she couldn’t.  
The doctor had assured her that everything would be fine as he had sat across from her in his office, not looking at her, but leafing through her file. “You’re too young for it to be anything serious,” he’d said. “I’ll schedule some tests but they aren’t high priority so it may take a while.”  
She’d waited another six months, feeling like no one cared. Then the tests had come and gone and she waited, assured by the doctor that everything looked fine, everything could be fixed, it was only fibroids, nothing serious.  
So, when she went back weeks later, imagine her surprise when he told her it was cancer, or almost cancer. But the diagnosis was the same. Rip out everything that made her a woman with hardly an “oh well” to be said about it.  
And now she was here — the memory of her child already fading, though she was trying desperately to keep that sweet face in her memory. He’d killed her children as surely as if he had taken a knife and plunged it into them. And with it, her last hope that she would have some kind of a future.  
In the next room, she could hear a baby fussing. To add insult to injury, they’d put her in the maternity ward — another slap in the face.  
Her throat ached and her eyes burned with unshed tears. What could she do? She swore to herself that she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of tears. She’d wait. Wait until it was night, when everyone else was asleep. Only then would she lay there and cry. Mourn for her babies, for Lavender Rose. Mourn for her life — and their lives — that would never be.  
She closed her eyes again, hoping to see that sweet face there smiling at her, hoping to hear that voice call her “Mummy” again.  
She heard someone come in the room but couldn’t force herself to care. When someone cleared his or her throat, she opened her eyes.  
And there he stood. Looking at her chart, not at her. “Everything went fine,” he said as he scribbled something. “I did a few tests but everything should be absolutely fine. I’ll have my secretary call you for an appointment when the test results are back. Are you in any pain?”  
“No,” she whispered, trying to will the anger out of her voice and not succeeding. “I’ll be fine.”  
“Well,” he said as he put the pen in his pocket and her chart back in its holder at the end of her bed. “All done.” He walked out of the room without another word.  
And that’s how she felt at that moment — and for many more moments after — all done.  
She expected no sympathy. The only people she had told hadn’t much cared. Nor mentioned anything about it. Someone she’d thought of as a friend simply said, “If you’d been meant to have a baby, you’d have had one,” then continued talking about her problems.  
Cold comfort indeed.  
Sarah closed her eyes again, willing herself to sleep. Willing herself to believe that the fussing baby was hers. She pulled one of the pillows out from under her head and squeezed it tightly. It was still warm from her body heat, making it easier to pretend it was alive, if only for a moment.  
She felt like her heart was breaking, shattering into a million pieces as she laid there.  
“Please,” she prayed silently. “Please, let me die.”  
“It’s alright. You’re safe. We’re here,” a voice whispered as she felt warm arms holding her for just a moment before blackness took her away from the light and the pain. It wasn’t the first time the black had taken her, but it was the first time she was aware of being there. It was warm. It felt safe. And the blinding, crushing sadness wasn’t quite so bad. She felt like she was surrounded, but in a good way. And she felt something she hadn’t felt since she was a child — she felt loved.  
“We’re always here. We’ll keep you safe,” a voice whispered.  
She knew she should feel confused or scared or . . . something. But, instead, she felt relief. And before she dropped off into sleep, she heard a giggle and saw the face of her daughter once more. The little girl held out her hand.  
“Come play, Mummy,” she called.  
And Sarah felt herself laughing too. Felt relief and a happiness she’d never known. In the back of her mind, she knew it wasn’t real. But she didn’t care. She had her Lavender Rose — for however long it would be — and that was all that mattered.


End file.
